Terror

10/15/2013

Reports detailing the brutal suppression of street protests in Egypt, South Africa or Kenya does not come as a surprise. A national holiday in Egypt to mark the 40-year anniversary of the country's war with Israel ended last week with the deaths of 28 demonstrators.

In South Africa, mounting unrest over unemployment and lack of basic services have led to protests and violent confrontations with security services, including one where 34 striking mineworkers were gunned down by police.

There are daily reports about police and military brutality in the face of continuing protests that began in 2011 with the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

The report's title comes from Toronto's G20 summit protests in June 2010 when a Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr issued an order to "take back the streets." Over the next two days more than 1,000 peaceful protesters were rounded up and detained.

"It is emblematic of a very concerning pattern of government conduct: the
tendency to transform individuals exercising a fundamental democratic
right – the right to protest – into a perceived threat that requires a
forceful government response," notes an American Civil Liberties Union blog about Warr's G20 order.

The Canadian case detailed in the report focuses on the widespread street protests in Quebec over high tuition and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who became the face of the 2012 demonstrations that were dubbed "the Maple Spring."

The conclusion is worrying: "The student protests in Quebec were unusual for Canada in terms of their size, strength, and sustained nature," reads the report. "The governmental response – the enactment of a law that significantly curbed peaceful assembly and expressive activities – was highly troubling. The police response also gave cause for significant concerns and raised questions about the adequacy of oversight and accountability mechanisms in the province."

10/08/2013

When there is a tragedy, such as the 2011 massacre in Norway perpetrated by right-wing terrorist Andres Behring Breivik, we search for understanding. Who was Breivik? How could he bomb downtown Oslo and then systematically gun down children at a summer camp for 90-minutes before police could stop him?

Norway, home of the Nobel Peace Prize, went through a 10-week trial and much soul-searching. The country's measured reaction in the wake of terrorism is now held up as a model for how to respond without rhetoric. (Breivik is serving a sentence of 21 years for the deaths of the 77 victims he killed.)

Breivik's path to radicalization is easier to study than that of other terrorists, as he left behind hundreds of pages of a manifesto he wrote, and a rich online trail. As always, there are a variety of factors involved.

But the latest report studying him comes from the Journal Exit-Deutschland, and looks exclusively at Breivik's use of the Internet and social media. The authors also had access to Breivik's private emails. "Not only did Breivik compile his 1516-pages long compendium based
exclusively on Internet sources," states the report's abstract. "Before the attacks, he was also an
active discussant on a number of mainstream and extremist Internet
forums, and a highly dedicated online gaming enthusiast."

Among the report's findings is the fact that Breivik gathered the materials and instructions on how to build the bombs online, while also financing his attack through an online company. He was described as an "online gaming enthusiast." This dominated his life in the years leading to the attacks.

"One cannot
dismiss theories that the extreme amount of time spent on playing online
games while being isolated from friends and relatives may have had an
impact on his disposition to engage in extreme violence," the authors state.

10/03/2013

Before my first trip to Mogadishu, my image of Somalia was the dusty, broken torso of U.S. Staff Sergeant William Cleveland.

That image hangs with other famous photographs taken by Toronto Star photographers in the corridor our newsroom.

Paul
Watson risked his life to take that photo of the American soldier's
corpse as it was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by a frenzied
mob Oct. 3, 1993. That photo changed the course of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and has haunted Paul, and Somalia, since.

"In less time than it took to breathe, I had to decide whether to steal a
dead man's last shred of dignity," Watson wrote in his memoir, Where War Lives. "The moment of
choice, in the swirl of dust and sweat, hatred and fear, is still
trapped in my mind, denying me peace: just as I was about to press the
shutter on my camera, the world went quiet, everything around me melted
into a slow-motion blur and I heard the voice: 'If you do this, I will
own you forever.' "

He said he "winced with each blow," while watching the crowd whip Cleveland's body: "I had no idea who the corpse was, and after weeks of looking at dead
and maimed Somali women and children, I despised men like him who killed
from the sky. Until now. Here we were on the same ground, in blowing
dirt and sour stench of fetid trash, on this nameless Somali side street
where neither of us belonged, and for the first time, it felt like it
was us against them. And there was nothing I could do to help him."

It is hard to believe that photo was taken 20 years ago - two decades since the horror that has become known in the West simply as "Black Hawk Down" thanks to the popularity of Mark Bowden's book and movie of the same name. Hundreds of Somalis were killed along with 18 elite U.S. Rangers.

Paul won the Pulitzer for that photo and the Star marked the event by creating a commemorative
pewter coin, about the diameter of a hockey puck, which depicted Paul with a
disproportionately enormous forehead. I remember when I joined the paper as a summer student in 1995, the coins were pretty much thrown in desk drawers.

During the 1990s and early 2000's, as the fighting continued and
thousands died of starvation and disease, Somalia largely fell off the radar. The
little humanitarian help Somalia did receive came from Arab
states, Saudi Arabia in particular, which helped fund schools and mosques. The West was reluctant to get
involved in Africa again, turning a blind eye to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda until it was
too late.

Canada withdrew from Somalia as well in 1993 - in disgrace - following revelations that members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment beat to death Somali teenager Shidane Arone. Canada held an inquiry into the affair and disbanded the unit after accounts emerged not
just of Arone's death but of a culture of violence and racism within the regiment.

In many ways it has taken those two decades for these images to fade. To Westerners, the sight of savage Somali mobs. To Somalis, the site of savage Western troops.

Somalia's president issued a statement Thursday to mark the anniversary. "Unfortunately, far too many lives were lost during Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud wrote, referring to the U.S. mission.

“On the other hand, 20 years later, the United States was
the first government to recognize our new government after the end of
the transition and today our two great countries stand together as
friends and allies. As we celebrate our recovery we also mark with
sadness and respect the lives lost on both sides in the madness of that
conflict and we say firmly, never again.”

Today there is a shaky sense of stability in Somalia and while enormous challenges remain ahead, there is also a chance that the country could vacate the number one spot on Foreign Policy Magazine's annual Failed State Index.

Over the years of traveling to Somalia, it has become one of my favourite places to cover. Somalis are survivors and among the most gracious hosts and best storytellers I've met. There are also Somalis all over the world, in countries where they fled following the government's collapse in 1991. The Somali diaspora have been critical in rebuilding diplomatic and humanitarian ties between their adopted countries and their country of birth.

Despite hosting one of the world's largest Somali communities outside of Africa, Canada has been reluctant to build ties. But on Tuesday, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met with his Somali counterpart, Fawzia Yusuf Adam, pledging cooperation. Somalia is reportedly preparing to open an embassy in Ottawa.

10/02/2013

There is a predictable pattern to how terrorism groups grow and morph and how authorities respond in the wake of an attack. Al Qaeda is skilled at recruiting the disenfranchised, filling power vacuums and taking advantage of civil rights abuses perpetrated by governments. This fits the group's narrative that there is a global war against Muslims.

That sad cycle may be continuing following Nairobi's Westgate Mall, which killed more than 65 children, women and men. Al Shabab, the East African Al Qaeda affiliate, has claimed responsibility.

Washington Post journalist Sudarsan Raghavan writesWednesday of the indiscriminate arrest of Ubah Abubakar, an interior designer from Fairfax, Va., who lives in Nairobi and is of Somali origin. "They are rounding up anybody just for the sake they are Somali, or who looks Somali," he told Raghavan.

I've heard almost that exact quote before. In January 2010, Nairobi was rocked by a demonstration that started at the Jamia Mosque and quickly spread through the downtown. The protest concerned the arrest of a radical Jamaican-born cleric in Kenya.

Within minutes of arriving, I could see the black flag of Al Qaeda flying and Kenyan forces released wave upon wave of tear gas and fired live rounds into the crowd. At least one protester was killed. Kenyans feared that Somalia's war was finally coming next door - but they also condemned authorities for reacting with such force.

But it was a few days later when Kenyan police really struck back, descending on the Somali Eastleigh neighbourhood.Kenyan Mohammed
Ibrahim told me he had been near one of Eastleigh's mosques when police arrived and he
stood his ground while others fled. He could tell from one of the constable's accented
English that his native tongue was Luo, a dialect from western Kenya.

As he moved into arrest Ibrahim, he replied in Luo: "You are targeting my community. What's your problem?" The officer responded, "No problem," and walked away.

They were only arresting those of Somali origin, or as I was told repeatedly, those who looked Somali. Resentment was building.

In 2012, I was in Majengo, near Eastleigh, to investigate the rise of a group calling itself the Muslim Youth Center, and its charismatic leader Ahmed Imam Ali. The MYC ostensibly started as a social outreach group, appealing to the downtrodden who were weary of police harassment and the poverty.

That group is now called Al-Hijra and Ali has become Kenya's Al Shabab leader. A report issued by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned last year: "Al-Hijra is likely to become more active: its principal leader, Ahmed
Iman Ali, remains at large, gaining experience, confidence and
credentials as a jihadist leader. Hundreds of Al-Hijra members have
undergone training and experienced combat in Somalia between 2008-2012;
following the loss of their bases, as Al Shabab withdraws further and
further from the Kenyan border, many members of this jihadist cohort
are likely to return to Kenya or travel to other East African countries."

The identities of the Westgate attackers is not yet known - although it will be surprising if there is not some involvement of Al Hijra. A report by journalist Jamal Osman, states that the leader of the attack was a Kenyan national, a Christian convert who was once part of the country's special forces.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that, "American officials said they were close to discovering the identities of
the assailants from tests performed on their remains, and that they
appeared to come from several different countries."

With still so much uncertain a week after the attack ended, all that is clear is the need for answers. A shoddy post-attack investigation, coupled with random, widespread arrests, would only fuel Al Qaeda's next generation, thus letting the predictable cycle continue.

10/01/2013

It was a sexy sex scandal and like anything shocking these days, it instantly went viral.

Tunisia's Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou claimed women are flocking to Syria to wage "sex jihad." Ben Jeddou made the audacious statement to Tunisia's members of the National Constituent Assembly on September 19, alleging that these women would leave home to have "sexual relations with 20, 30, 100 militants" fighting the regime loyal to President Bashar Assad in Syria. Many would return pregnant.

Various media outlets reported that this idea of "sex jihad" is backed by hardline Salafist clerics. Misogynist edicts are not uncommon in some circles (look no further than Saudi Arabia's top conservative cleric, Sheik Saleh Saad el-Leheidan, who said Friday in endorsing a ban on female drivers, that women will damage their ovaries should they drive) but the most commonly cited reference for "sex jihad" points to a fatwa reportedly issued by Saudi cleric Mohammed al-Arefe - which he denies making.

Further, there are no credible interviews with Tunisian women who were on their way to Syria or had returned pregnant.

So why would Tunisia's interior minister make such a claim, if not true? Foreign Policy Magazine's David Kenner points out that Ben Jeddou campaigns against extremist Salafi groups. "Suggesting that Tunisian Salafi women are sleeping with dozens
of Syrian
rebels could be another way to discredit them" Kenner writes.

Sometimes when a story is so hard to believe we think, you just can't make this stuff up. Sometimes, however, it appears you can.

09/20/2013

Expect to hear more about this organization as the horror in Syria continues. Although the group was formed in April, recent events are distinguishing the ISIS from other groups fighting forces loyal to the Assad regime.

ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (sometimes referred to as Syria or the Levant), and it is the newest and likely most-experienced Al Qaeda franchise in Syria.

Al Qaeda has been skilled in taking advantage of Syria's chaos and in some areas fighters were welcomed by rebels, who may not agree with the group's global ideology but appreciated the military support when opposing the well-equipped forces supporting President Bashar al Assad.

The ISIS even went on a "charm offensive," reaching out to war wearing neighbourhoods with street festivals instead of hardline doctrine.

As U.S.-based analyst Aaron Zelin, author of a new in-depth analysis of the group for the Washington Institute For Near East Policy, told the Star's Mitch Potter: “It’s pretty clear
that ISIS has learned hard lessons about not shoving a conservative
interpretation of Sharia law down people’s throats."

“This is exactly the
same organization that is Al Qaeda in Iraq, same leadership structure,
everything,” he said. “But unlike Iraq, they are being much smarter
about outreach, especially this past summer. Events like pie-eating
contests, aimed at children, together with significant successes in
battle against Assad forces, show a kind of soft-power outreach."

But the hearts-and-mind agenda seemed to change Wednesday, when the group took control of the Turkish border town of Azaz, fighting not Assad loyalists, but the Free Syrian Army rebels who held the region.

What this recent division and reconciliation all means is still unclear, except for the obvious: if rebel groups are fighting each other they are not fighting the Assad regime.

But as the BBC's Paul Woods notes, in the long term this could work to the Free Syrian Army's advantage. If the U.S. and Western governments are able to see clearer distinctions between FSA rebels and Al Qaeda-linked groups, they may be more willing to support the FSA. (Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had recently warned his followers not to fight alongside secular rebels with ties to the West).

09/19/2013

Most voters in the north are ethnic Tamils and many are bitter about what they see as virtual occupation of the region by the army. Photo: AFP

Sri Lanka was home to one of the world's most vicious civil wars for more than three decades.

Before the government finally defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009, the United Nations estimated as many as 100,000 people were killed during the war. Others say the number of casualties is even higher.

Both sides earned international condemnation.

The Tamil Tigers pioneered the use of child soldiers and women as suicide bombers.In the final weeks of the war, more than 100,000 civilians were stuck between the rebels and government soldiers, and the United Nations later found evidence that the government shelled unarmed people, hospitals and aid workers.

The United Nations also said the Tamil Tigers had used civilians as human shields.

Now, four years after the end of fighting, Sri Lanka's government says an upcoming provincial election offers a way for separatists to rekindle their efforts for an independent Tamil homeland and could stoke animosities between the government and ethnic minority Tamils.

In an election for 38 provincial councillors on Saturday, voters in Northern Sri Lanka are expected to vote overwhelmingly for the Tamil National Alliance, a collection of political parties that long served as the political wing of the Tamil Tigers. This is the first time since 1988 that provincial council elections are being held in Northern Sri Lanka.

According to a report in the Indian newspaper Mint, the Sri Lankan government has accused the TNA of renewing calls for a separate state through its push for the devolution of power. The TNA says it wants devolution in a united Sri Lanka, not a separate state. Sri Lankan Tamils have claimed for several years that they are being left behind as the country develops.

“The army is the real problem,” TNA candidate C.V. Wigneswaran, 74, a former Supreme Court judge, told Mint outside his party’s election office. “If you take away the army ... our people will be freed of the intrusions and interference in their day-to-day life. We will not be subject to unnecessary harassment.”

Wigneswaran is using a familiar and definitely controversial symbol to rally support.

According to local news reports, Wigneswaran has publicly praised the former LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran as a "great hero."

Prabhakaran was killed in fighting during the final days of the civil war.

The chief candidate for Rajapaksa’s ruling party said the TNA is misleading voters.“Already, they have reduced the military occupancy to 24 square km this year from 64 square km in 2010. A provincial council has no right to decide on military movement,” Sinnathurai Thavarajah said.

Rajapaksa has a more than two-thirds majority in parliament and controls all other eight provinces in the country. He appears determined to win in the north where campaign posters for the ruling coalition are plastered over walls.

Over the past three weeks, Rajapaksa has commissioned half a dozen new development projects in the province, including the 63km extension of the railway track to the key city of Kilinochchi, Time magazine reports.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

“A repeat of Abbottabad-like incident would be a national shame for us," an unnamed government source told Cheema.

Cheema reports that there are now 120 constables assigned to protect Khan and four senior officers. In the past, Khan had 40 guards and two colonel-rank officers. A convoy of 10 vehicles is now assigned to escort Khan's bullet-proof jeep during trips within Islamabad.

Cheema explains some of the rules for residents who live in the neighbourhood around Khan: no Europeans or Americans are allowed. Arab nationals can rent an accommodation in the vicinity but only after securing security clearance.Khan said he's no fan of the bolstered security.

“It is like death that comes uninvited,” he said, adding he did not request the redoubled security.

The U.S. government has long viewed Khan with suspicion.

In 2004, a report from the Central Intelligence Agency said Khan provided Iran's nuclear program with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components. He is also known to have offered advice to North Korea and Libya and confessed to as much.

But four years after his confession, Khan retracted his apology, saying he had been coerced into it. "It was not of my own free will," Khan told The Guardian newspaper. "It was handed into my hand."

Khan was under house arrest in Islamabad from 2004 until 2009. He last year said he was mulling a move into politics as a candidate in Pakistan's national elections.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

09/13/2013

Venezuelan politician Abdel el-Zabayar received permission from his government to stay in Syria and help the Assad military. (Twitter.)

Who is fighting the war in Syria?

Plenty of non-Syrians, according to some media reports that warn Islamist groups have moved into Syria from the Caucuses and elsewhere to support the Syrian opposition.

There is even a group of Canadians who are believed to have left the safety of Canada to fight in Syria, according to Toronto Star journalist Michelle Shephard, who writes more than 100 Canadians have left to join the conflict during the past year.

But Abdel el-Zabayar is surely one the most unlikely fighters on the battlefield.

While el-Zabayar's roots are Syrian, he was born in Venezuela and he now is a congressman for the country's ruling party.

El-Zabayar several weeks ago asked his political bosses in Caracas for permission to remain in Syria, after he'd visited with friends and family there. When Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro gave him his blessing, "the lawmaker became a soldier," according to a report on el-Zabayar on the Website Vocativ.com.

“Thank you president and extraordinary brother @NicolasMaduro," el-Zabayar Tweeted on Sept. 3. "It’s important for the world to punish and stop the imperialist arrogance here.”

Overnight, el-Zabayar's Twitter account became one of social media's more oddball reads. (He has about 15,000 followers, although that figure is tempered by the fact he also follows more than 14,500 others).

There is el-Zabayar posing with his comrades armed with AK-47s. There are his some anti-American diatribes, to be sure, and also some Tweets to update Maduro, the Venezuelan president.

"There are no UN resolutions prohibiting trade with Syria," el-Zabayar tweeted Friday, after posting earlier a photo of local newspaper report in Damascus about his visit to Syria's national assembly.

El-Zabayar has also accused Turkey and Jordan of making money off the "Syrian refugee business" because he says they receive $700 per refugee per month from the U.N.

"If Obama cannot convince his wife and daughter of the attack on Syria, how can he convince the American people?" el-Zabayar tweeted on Sept. 11, also claiming online on Sept. 5 that U.S.-backed Islamists attacked a Christian village in North Syria.

El-Zabayar is not actually on the front lines with Syria's army.

He tells Vocativ that he does not have any weapons training and is looking after administrative chores.

“I am stationed near the Jordanian border, some 90 kilometers south of Damascas and around 20 kilometers from the front line,” he said, according to Vocativ. “My unit is in charge of maintaining a control point near the border, to avoid mercenaries getting into the country.”

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

09/12/2013

Reports state that Omar Hammami, better known as "Al Amriki" (the American), a one-time militant with Somalia's Al Shabab, was killed in a shoot out Thursday. Hammami's death has erroneously been reported before, but multiple news outlets were confirming the news, which first broke on Twitter by Voice of America journalist Harun Maruf.

Maruf interviewed the Alabama-born Hammami last week, where he reportedly told Maruf that coming back to the U.S. was not an option "unless it's in a body bag." As for his life now? Maruf tweeted that Hammami told him: "Wake up in the morning, drink tea, eat beans, read Qur'an, drink more tea, more beans, pray, and sleep."

A Shabab member, who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed, told The
Associated Press Thursday that Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia's
southern Bay region. Hammami told Maruf last week that Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair) wanted him dead.

"I know enough about his organization to know that he doesn't abide by the principles of Islam," Hammami said, later calling Godane a "control freak."

Hammami said he is no longer a member of the Shabab and told Maruf he believed the U.S. and Shabab were working together. "I'm definitely a terrorist, but I don't think that the United States are in the business right now of trying to shoot rockets at me," he said. "I think it's easier for them to just give the Shabab $5 million and tell them to hunt me down."

If his death is confirmed, it is significant in terms of further streamlining the Shabab's leadership, which has joined forces with Al Qaeda and waged an internal war against dissenters. Although Hammami's importance within the organization has likely been overstated - largely due to his Western connection, including a time he spent in Toronto, and his accessibility to English-speaking journalists and analysts - Hammami did serve as a recruiting agent for Westerners, and in recent years, helped provide an inside look at a diminished, yet still powerful Al Qaeda group. (While he was on Twitter, we conversed in private "Direct Messages" regarding a Canadian who had joined the Shabab and reportedly led an April suicide bombing mission at Mogadishu's courthouse.)

His death would follow the July defection of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a longtime Somali militant now reportedly in custody. (Here's an analysis of his departure and his shifting loyalties since we met in Mogadishu in 2006: bit.ly/18fd4rq )

ABC News reached Hammami's father, Shafik, who said he had been told of reports. "Of course I hope not, I hope it's not true," he told ABC
News in a telephone interview from his Alabama home Thursday. "Our lives have
been on a roller coaster for a long time, and we've been there before...
we just hope that it's not true this time."

Shafik said if his son was indeed killed, he died "fighting for his principles, whatever
they are."

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